Gene Kelly: Born August 23, 1912

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

He was one of the greatest athletes of the twentieth century, and his sport was dance.

[MadrasT]

1. Cool, I did not know it is his birthday (100 years too, wow!)

I just saw Singin' in the Rain on the big screen at the theater last night.

I Gene Kelly.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

2. And Donald O'Connor was no slouch...

[MadrasT]

8. Absolutely!

It was so great to see it in a real theater.

It was packed and everybody broke into applause and cheered after Make 'Em Laugh, Singin' In The Rain, and Good Morning.

O'Connor and Kelly make a great team.

[nolabear]

3. Ach, I had such a crush as a kid.

And his movies were already old then. But...what an ass.

[MadrasT]

10. Heh heh...

...I still have such a crush.

[Mac1949]

4. Gene Kelly always did his own stunts, and would ok it with his bosses after the scene was shot.

[Aristus]

5. I've got two left feet, so to watch Gene Kelly dance

was a breathtaking experience. Happy Birthday, Mr. Kelly...

[ohiosmith]

6. Good boxer too! Here's a cool video with Sugar Ray:

&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[hifiguy]

7. A great talent, an interesting guy,

and a lifelong liberal Democrat.

[MadrasT]

9. I just learned that yesterday!

[sadbear]

11. And his last wife was 41 years his junior.

For what it's worth.

[Arugula Latte]

12. Such a charismatic guy ...

Sigh.

[whistler162]

13. Moses supposes your toes are

correct as is the rest of you!

[nolabear]

14. So I saw his widow on TV last night. She's about my age. Now.

I'm in my mid fifties. Yowzah!

(On edit I looked it up. She's 46 years younger. Like I said, Yowzah!)

[Honeycombe8]

16. So was Fred Astaire's last wife. I tend to think they were more caretakers than

anything else. That's the way it seemed to me. (Remember, this was before Viagra.)

Even so, I'm sure there was some sort of consummation. Yowza! I woulda paid good money to see Gene Kelly in his whitie tidies.

[Ken Burch]

15. Gene was a leftist, too.

In the late Forties, he damn near got blacklisted for campaigning for Henry Wallace-I think that was part of the reason the studios stop backing his projects after 1953 or so.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

19. Committee for the First Amendment

He was a member, and flew to Washington to protest the McCarthy hearings.

[Honeycombe8]

17. He had been a gymnast before going into motion pics.

It shows, dontcha think? He has that built up upper body, different from many other dancers. And the muscularity of a gymast.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

18. !

Happy Birthday, Gene!